1. Submit an essay on a major topic (topics) treated in the course.
The contents of the essay must be related to the course.
Write your own opinion referring to the contents of the course and demonstrate your own opinion.
2. Deadline: January 23rd (Wednesday), 17:00
3. More than 1,000 words
4. Submit it to the SILS office. An attached file via e-mail is not acceptable.(In 2017, I will ask students to submit their essays in a similar way.)
◆
Contents

◆ Textbook
No textbook will be used in this class. Reference books will be introduced
in the class.
The contents of this course was published in Japanese in the following
book.
桜井 洋 2017『社会秩序の起源 － 「なる」ことの論理』 新曜社
(Sakurai, Hiroshi 2017 The Origin of Social Order -- The Logic of Becoming, Shin-yosha

The process of spontaneous formation of
macroscopic order (patterns) through the interactions of the autonomous agents
at the microscopic level. The essence of morphogenesis lies in its spontaneity
of order formation.. Morphogenesis is the order formation without any rules,
controls and disciplines.

◇ Emergence

Creation of macro
order through the interactions among the agents at the microscopic
level.

◇ Autonomous Agent

Elements or units with the
internal degree of freedom. In the living organism, macro molecules such as
proteins and nucleic acids, and the cells are autonomous agents.

◇
Disorder

Order means pattern or difference. Disorder means the
absence of patterns. Disorder means symmetry, because you cannot make any
distinction.

◇ Parallel Distributed Processing

When the
processing of information is conducted by the central unit such as central
government, it is called a serial processing. When the processing is conducted
by many autonomous agents simultaneously, it is called a parallel distributed
processing.. Typical example of this is the brain. There is no central commander
in the parallel distributed processing..

◇ The spontaneous breakdown
of symmetry

This is the first stage of the spontaneous order
(pattern) formation, or morphogenesis, or self-organization. Symmetry or
distorder will be broken spontaneouly to create order.

◇
fluctuation

Tiny changes or deviances or noises in the dynamical
process. Usually in a physical dynamical process, there are a lot of
fluctuations.

◇ bifurcation

Possible choice of the
dynamical path.

◇ criticality or critical condition

The
state of something where phase transition can occur. For example, water is in
the critical condition of phase transiton at 0 and 100 degrees Celsius.

◇ phase transition

A sudden change of state of matter. For
example, ice will suddenly change into liquid at 0 degrees.

◇
positive feedback

A dynamical process to amplify the formation of a
specific pattern. At a bifurcation, there are a lot of fluctuations. One
fluctuation can be selected by chance. It could be amplified and strengthened
and enhanced. The concept of positive feedback is a hallmark of non-linear
dynamics beside the idea of chaos. Without this process, the spontaneous pattern
formation seems impossible.

◇ negative feedback

A dynamical
process to protect and preserve the already established pattern. This concept
relates to the self-preservation.

◇ Chaos

Chaos is a
characteristic of a certain dynamics. The chaotic dynamics reacts to the
fluctuations very sensitively and easy to change its expected path.

◇
The Edge of Chaos

The area between chaos and equilibrium. Here, the
dynamics is partly chaotic, and partly stable. If the dynamics is completely
stable, the it will cease to be dynamical. The edge of chaos is the place for
the complex dynamical systems such as life. Because, life must be stable on one
hand, but it must be unstable on the other hand in order to evolve.

Camazine, Scott, Jean-Louis Deneubourg, Nigel Franks, James Sneyd, Guy
Theraulaz, Eric Bonabeau 2001 Self-Organization in Biological Systems , Princeton, Princeton University Press
*Kaneko, Kunihiko 2006 Life: An Introduction to Complex Systems Biology, Berlin, Springer
Kauffman, Stuart 1993 The Origin of Order, Oxford University Press
*------ 1995 At Home in the Universe: The Search for Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity, Penguin Books
------ 2000 Investigations, Oxford University Press
A book or an article with * is ones closely related with this course.
Nicolis, Grégoire and Ilya Prigogine 1989 Exploring Complexity, New York, W.H.Freeman and Company
*Prigogine, Ilya 1980 From Being to Becoming Time and Complexity in the Physical Sciences, San Francisco, W.H.Freeman and Company
------ 1997 The End of Certainty , Free Press
Waldrop, M. M. 1992 Complexity: The emerging science at the edge of order and chaos, New York, Simon & Schuster.

2. Complexity Theory in Sociology

Bogg, Jan and Robert Geyer eds. 2007 Complexity, Science and Society, Oxford and New York, Radcliffe Publishing
*Buckley, Walter 1967 Sociology and Modern Systems Theory, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs
------ 1998 Society ― A Complex Adaptive System Essays in Social Theory, Gordon and Breach Publishers
Byrne, David 1998 Complexity Theory and the Social Sciences An Introduction, London, Routledge
Byrne, David and Gill Callaghan 2014 Complexity Theory and the Social Sciences --- The State of the Art, London, Reutledge
Castellani, Brian and Frederic William Hafferty 2009 Sociology and Complexity Science A New Field of Inquiry, Berlin and Heidelberg, Springer Verlag
Chesters, Graeme and Ian Welsh 2006 Complexity and Social Movements --- Multitudes at the Edge of Chaos, London, Routledge
Cilliers, Paul 1998 Complexity and Postmodernism Understanding Complex Systems, London, Routledge
Cilliers, Paul and Rika Preiserr eds. 2010 Complexity, Difference and Identity: An Ethical Perspective, Springer
DeLanda, Manuel 2002 Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy, London and New York, Bloomsbury
------ 2006 A New Philosophy of Society Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity, London and New York, Bloomsbury
Eve R.A., S.Horsfall and Mary Lee eds. 1997 Chaos, Complexity and Sociology, Sage Publications
*The Gulbenkian Commission 1996 Open the Social Sciences Report of the Gulbenkian Commission on the Restructuring
of the Social Sciences, Stanford, Stanford University Press
*Hardt, Michael and Antonio Negri 2004 Multitude War and Democracy in the Age of Empire, Penguin Books
Jenks, Chris and John Smith 2006 Qualitative Complexity Ecology, Cognitive Processes and the Re-emergence
of Structures in Post-humanist Social Theory, Routledge
Law, John and Annemarie Moll (eds.) 2002 Complexities --- Social Studies of Knowledge and Practices, Durham and London, Duke University Press
Massumi, Brian 2002 Parables for the Virtual --- Movement, Affect, Sensation, Durham and London, Duke University Press
Sakurai, Hiroshi, forthcoming, A Theory of the Social Order
Japanese edition of this book is 『社会秩序の理論』 新曜社
Sawyer, R. Keith 2005 Social Emergence Societies As Complex Systems, New York, Cambridge University Press
*Taylor, Mark 2001 The Moment of Complexity --- Emerging Network Culture, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press
*Urry, John 2003 Global Complexity, Cambridge, Polity Press
------ 2005 ‘The Complexity Turn’ Theory, Culture and Society, vol.22(5):1-14
------ 2005 ‘The Complexity of the Global’, Theory, Culture and Society, vol.22(5) 235-254